Unravel is earnest as a game about a tiny person made of yarn could be.
The yarn person in question is named Yarny, and he's perhaps the most mascot-ready character created since the mid-90s. His head is a red-hued crescent moon, and he has white button eyes that teeter between lifeless and determined. He's equal parts adorable and uncanny, like any good mascot.
Yarny embarks on a journey of family, living through memories of his owner's life in order to reclaim knit charms made out of, I guess, him, presuming that Yarny is a male, or even gender-determined at all. Yarn people are confusing in this way. Unravel works toward sentimentality and resonance on all fronts, hoping to imbue the running, jumping, and yarn-lassoing of the gameplay with significance, awe, and a touch of healthy sorrow.
Unravel really tries. But it doesn't quite have it. Instead of resonant, it's mostly unremarkable. Occasionally frustrating. I didn't feel much else.
The greatest triumph of Unravel, strangely enough, is technological. Published by Electronic Arts but developed largely by the independent Swedish studio Coldwood Interactive, its environments are detailed to an impressive degree. The levels, which seem to have been very closely based on actual photographs, are clearly digitally rendered but come as close to photorealism as any game has.
Electronic Arts
